Hope you’re not weary of hearing about all things Suicide Squad this week, because director David Ayer isn’t quite done discussing what sets his entry in WB and DC’s cinematic universe apart from the rest of the superhero movies out there (other than, you know, a tatted-up Joker with rock-hard abs).
Speaking with Empire, Ayer unloaded on his frustrations with comic book movies that resort to end-of-the-world stakes to give their superheroes an absolutely gargantuan obstacle to overcome, essentially giving the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe a kick in the kidneys:
You know, all these movies are about defeating the evil alien robot from fucking Planet X before it destroys the world with its ticking clock. And who the fuck cares? But you do this story about struggle and isolation and people who have been s—- on that suddenly get thrown this lifeline…that’s not so bad…I like to think of this as the Comic Book Movie 2.0.
Ayer has a point – over the years, the future-of-humankind-on-the-line plot point has been done to death. That’s perhaps why Ant-Man‘s slightly smaller stakes, and subsequently much lighter tone, were greeted with such rapturous acclaim from fans. There’s certainly something of an underdog quality to the Suicide Squad, so whatever they end up doing in their feature vehicle, at least there’s no planet-destroying plot device in play to distract from the more important things (like how completely batshit crazy Jared Leto looks as the Clown Prince of Crime).
The director certainly seems confident about his vision for the movie (not much of a surprise given that this is Ayer we’re talking about), and though a fair amount of the photography we’ve seen from it has been decidedly strange (that cover of Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress looks like something out of The Ring), it’s going to be absolutely fascinating to watch it all play out on the big screen.
Suicide Squad opens August 5, 2016.